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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Book Review: The Everychurch Guide to Growth.

This book review is one which I submitted as part of a church growth class for my masters degree. It was the first time I had ever been exposed to church growth concepts. I found it very interesting because I could see where many churches in my area had moved in this direction and had resulted in large numerical growth. However, are these principles really biblical, or simply business models adapted for the church? Personally I am not sure yet. I also wanted to post this review because of the comments that I made about church leadership towards the end of the review. I am not really sure where I was going with these comments and I am not sure where I stand now, because I no longer attend the elder lead church I discuss below. I would love to hear of experiences others may have had with church growth principles as set forth in books like these.

I grew up attending
smaller churches of less than 100 people and numerical growth was a
subject that came up often, though mostly at Church meetings where
finances were being voted upon. Money issues definitely plagued the
smaller churches I attended, they struggled to pay the often times
very low salary of their over worked pastor. Not to mention the
overhead and maintenance costs of aging church buildings and
facilities. But money problems are usually only a surface symptom of
a deeper issue that is inhibiting spiritual and numerical growth.
This book, The Everychurch Guide to Growth, attempts to give
solutions and practical advice to possible growth problems.

The first motivator
for a reader to pick this book off of the shelf is the fact that all
three authors have the experience and credentials to speak
authoritatively on the subject of church growth. Elmer Towns is a
prolific author and seminary professor, as well as a lecturer and a
respected scholar on church growth. C. Peter Wagner is a writer and
noted authority on the church growth movement, and is a professor at
Fuller Theological Seminary. Thom S. Rainer is a noted author and
scholar on evangelism and church growth and is president of LifeWay
Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention in
Nashville.

Though this work is
short, only 188 pages of text, it covers a lot of ground in the area
of church growth and practical direction. The book is divided into
three sections discussing barriers to growth in small (200 people),
medium (400 people) and large (1,000 people) churches. Each of these
sections are taken up by a different author, Wagner deals with the
small church, Rainer with the medium, and Towns with the larger
churches.

Some of the most
immediately practical advice can be found in the introductory
discussion at the beginning of the book. It is here that several
factors, which could inhibit growth, are given under the heading of
“A Sick Body Will Not Grow”1
which lists five “diseases” that could be the cause of stagnated
development.

These five diseases
are; “ethnikitis,” which is “an allegiance of the church to one
ethnic group;”2
“ghost town disease,”3
meaning a church that does not grow because of a local depleting
population; “people blindness,”4
referring to an inability to see needs within the body or in the
community; “koinonitis,”5
this is an over emphasis on internal church fellowship; “sociological
strangulation,”6
which refers to the building facilities not being large enough for
numerical growth; “arrested spiritual development,”7
which is a lack of internal spiritual growth; and “hypopneumia,”
a “subnormal level of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.”8
This introduction is definitely the strong point of the book. If one
were only able to read a few pages, due to time constraints, much of
the benefits would be gleaned from reading only the first 20 pages.

If a reader had a
few extra minutes to glean more from the book, flipping to chapter
eight would be the next best thing. Here one could read about a very
interesting discussion on the “cell” church in part three.
Despite the discussion being in the context of breaking the “1,000”
person barrier, it appears that the concept of the church being
several “cells” is applicable even to those churches that would
be labeled small. This is exactly what Towns does in his description
of the cell;

A small single cell church probably has an average attendance of 87
worshipers (87 is a statistical average of a wide variety of churches
representing different denominations, theological convictions,
worship styles, and regional areas of the United States). The single
cell church resembles a large, overgrown family. As a matter of fact,
the single cell church is often called the family church or the
typical American church.9

This idea of the
church being a “cell” in the fashion of a living organism, is a
very practical understanding of the church. It is here that universal
application of some general techniques of growth can be readily
understood and applied. Several bulleted lists and tables are given,
filled with ways in which programs or activities can be undertaken to
immediately move a church in the direction of growth. These are very
practical and down to earth and can be summed up in Towns' own words;

Just as a human body grows by the division of cells (and remains
healthy by the addition of cells), in the same way the local church
body will grow by adding cells. Don't think of adding people to a
church of 100 – think of adding new ministries, new classes, and
new programs of outreach.10

The introduction
and chapter eight together total around 40 pages of text, these
appear to be the strongest and most practical areas of the book. The
rest is not as promising and there are several points of critique
which can be brought to light.

The repetitive
nature of the content can be a detraction from those who want a more
detailed discussion and overview. As was mentioned above, much of
part one and two repeats the introductory comments on “diseases”
of church growth. Though, some readers may find that repeating the
material helps them retain the information for later use.

Most of the
directions and tips concerning the type and quality of leadership can
better be learned and understood in other more in-depth books dealing
specifically with the subject of biblical leadership. the information
which given on the topic of leadership is itself very repetitive in
nature, which appears to be the designed approach of the book. Though
each section touches on the challenges of leadership in some form,
the only chapter that focuses specifically on Godly leadership is
chapter nine, and this in the context of breaking the 1,000 person
barrier. This really should be more of an in depth study, considering
that the authors consistently point to the pastor and leadership as
the main problem of failing to break church growth barriers.

The final, and
arguably the most detracting characteristic of the book, is the
emphasis on the pastor-teacher style of leadership. This is by no
means the only way a congregation can be lead. There are many
successful churches which are shepherded by an unpaid, non
professional group of elders. Many of these churches are very large
and have exceeded the 300 and even 400 person mark. I personally
attended a church such as this, which fluctuated every Sunday from
200 to 250 people and was lead by a group of elders and deacons. Each
of the elders shared the position of leadership and none had the
“final word” on the direction or vision of the church. Consider
this statement at the beginning of chapter nine;

The one key ingredient to breaking the 1,000 barrier is the
pastor-leader. The pastor must be an executive leader with skills
not evident or required to break the tow previous barriers (emphasis
mine).11

This statement
shows the bias that is presented towards the pastor-teacher style of
leadership which is prevalent in churches today. If the methods of
church growth given in The Everychurch Guide to Growth only
work with a pastor-teacher style of leadership, then one must
question the biblical soundness of the methods given.

In conclusion, this
book has many things going for it, especially if one wishes to have
an introduction to the topic of growth. But the book is so repetitive
that the information could easily be condensed to a booklet of 80
pages or so. Also, better books are out there that deal with the
subject of biblical leadership which could be consulted. Perhaps a
better approach would be to give more real life examples of these
methods implemented in actual churches and discuss how they have
worked. Overall, this is a good introduction to church growth and is
a great book to keep in ones library for quick and easy reference on
the topic of growth.